Should recruiters be risk takers?2 min read

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

It is often said that recruiter’s role is to reduce as much as possible recruitment risk and uncertainty. However, are all risks bad? Should a recruiter avoid risk at all cost even if it means discarding candidates that could be seen as the best fit for a given position?

Decreasing risk can be a good and healthy thing

Recruitment always includes a risk factor and there is always at least a small chance of mistake when recruiting somebody you have only seen in interviews. This is why recruiters seek reinsurance through personality tests and multiple interviews. This is also why trial periods exist for new hires.
This is understandable since the recruiter feels he will be the first blamed in case the new hire doesn’t perform up to the company standards.

Similarly recruiting through employee referrals has gained in popularity recently mainly because it virtually wipes out the risk for the recruiters of new hire not blending with the company culture. When one of our employees bring in referral this is because he knows this person is compatible with the core values.

Again, here it appears to be a good thing recruiters take the sensible approach to limit recruitment risk.

So what’s the big deal: when being risk adverse could be a bad thing?

This can become a problem in extreme cases when recruiters refuse to take any risk whatsoever .This happen more often in large companies than start-up because they are more rigid in their hiring practices and are offered less freedom by their company HR rules.

Large companies sometimes will take only “proven” individuals and always hire profiles that have the same training and experience even if another candidate with atypical profile seems better.While this indeed reduces risk on the short term, on the long term this means the term will be an army of clones, unable to think out of the box because everybody has the same profile.

Changing habits can appear as risky but the team richness will only be increased.

In Jobboard Finder we believe that people are set to accomplish greater things when they are out of their comfort zone and have something to prove. When you take a chance at somebody they are going to want to prove you right and will work harder than anyone else on the team. Seeing this person work ethic and that they are in an organization that gives its chance to diversity will emulate and motivate the other members of a team,create a strong dynamic company culture and make you look like a genius.

Author: Dorota Beaurin